


Ashes

by savamey



Series: Manon Fournier - TKC [2]
Category: The Kane Chronicles - Rick Riordan
Genre: Drabble, Ficlet, Gen, OC, OC backstory, tragic backstory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:41:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25457935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/savamey/pseuds/savamey
Summary: A drabble about a tragic event in my Kane Chronicles OC Manon Fournier’s backstory.
Series: Manon Fournier - TKC [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1843936
Kudos: 4





	Ashes

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a part of a minific collection my friends and I are doing based on our Riordanverse RP. Hope you enjoy!

“Goodbye, Maman! See you later!” Manon called out to her mother in French as she wheeled her bicycle out the gates of their cottage. Her mother gave a weary smile. “Be back by sunset! I love you!”

Manon waved and mounted her bike, which creaked as she started to pedal towards the path by the beach. There, she’d meet up with Charlotte and Cécile.

Life for Manon couldn’t be anymore perfect. It was summer and there was no school, and she and her family were living in the Fournier family summer cottage on the coast, like they did every summer. The weather had been perfect so far that summer, warm with no rain. And today, she was going to the carnival with her friends.

Another thing had happened a few weeks ago, a thing that Manon had so childishly wished to discover over the years: magic. 

For so long, it had been a distant fantasy of hers as she poured over the pages of fantasy novels. She had regarded it as something that only existed within those novels, something so amazing yet so far out of her reach. But her older brother, Henri, had gone digging in the attic of the cottage about a month and a half ago, where he found the books.

The books were journals written by Henri and Manon’s great-grandfather in which he described the Fournier family history and how one of his great-grandparents went on one of Napoleon’s expeditions to Egypt, where he married and had a child with a local woman. By doing so, the Fournier ancestor had introduced the blood of the pharaohs to their family, blood which enabled all Fournier descendants to do ancient Egyptian magic.

Other journals contained their great-grandfather’s notes on magic and how to do it. Using these and other books from the local library, Henri had taught himself to do this ancient magic. By the time Manon caught him doing magic a few weeks later, he was proficient enough to teach her.

Ever since, she’d been in a state of eternal bliss. She could do magic now. Hence, she could do nearly anything she wanted. Once she learned the proper spells, of course.

In the few weeks she’d been doing magic, Manon had managed to learn several simple spells, like levitation, changing the sizes of things, and locking and unlocking doors. Ever since she and Henri had read in a library book that their magic abilities could increase tenfold if they called on the power of the Egyptian gods, they’ve been mastering the simple spells much quicker than they had been before.

In the distance, among the grassy dunes, Manon could see her two friends on their bikes, waiting at the path. She rode towards them, waving. “Hey, guys! Sorry I’m a bit late!”

Manon stopped her bike in front of them. Charlotte smiled at her.

“It’s okay.”

“My mom gave me a whole lot of money!” Cécile boasted, shaking a coin purse she had on her. “I’ll pay for us!”

“Thank you,” Manon said, smiling at her. 

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Charlotte started pedaling down the wooden path, her bike shaking due to the path’s unevenness. Manon and Cécile laughed and followed after Charlotte.

They rode down the path, which lay parallel to the beach. The sun beat down on Manon’s face, warming her, and a cool ocean breeze prevented her from getting too hot. Stubborn, pretty flowers that grew among the sand dunes danced in the breeze, as did the butterflies that flitted among them.

Manon smiled at the pretty sight. Perfect.

But little did she know, within a few hours, the illusion of her life that she called perfection would be shattered.

~~~

The pier that hosted the carnival became visible soon, extending out in front of the three girls into the sea, along with the scent of fried food and the screams of delight and fear coming off the rides.

The girls got off their bikes, leaning them on nearby trees, and rushed to the pier. Within minutes, they had the carnival fried food in their hands and mouths, and joy in their hearts. And even more minutes later, they were in line for one of the rollercoaster rides. 

Manon bounced on the balls of her feet, excited and nervous. This would be her first big-kid rollercoaster. Her mother never let her ride them before, claiming Manon would get scared. Well, Manon’s mother wasn’t there, and Manon was ten, after all. She was definitely old and mature enough to ride them. 

The line crept forward. The ride was popular with the carnival-goers. As the three girls got closer to the front, Manon’s excitement and anxiety increased, and she bounced harder.

“Excited?” Cécile asked, laughing. Manon nodded.

“Duh!”

Charlotte also laughed. Just then, they reached the front of the line, and the ride operator opened the gates to let them load.

As the lap bar was secured across her, Manon started having second thoughts, and she wondered if getting on the ride was a good idea.

By the time the rollercoaster car was flying down the first hill, Manon had forgotten all about her fears. Her delighted screams and laughter filled the air.

A kilometer away, there were also screams. Screams and a lot of fire and smoke. Bad men stood around, watching the heretic family burn for their sin.

~~~

Of course, after having a taste of one, Manon had to ride more of the big-kid rollercoasters. Charlotte and Cécile accompanied her happily. 

Once they had ridden every rollercoaster at the carnival, the three moved on to the carnival games. Most of the games involved throwing something at a target of some sort, and the three girls had bad aims, so they won nothing. This didn’t stop them from trying and having fun, however.

Soon, the sun started going down, and the girls’ fun had to come to an end.

“Maman said I needed to be home by sunset,” Manon said, noticing the tangerine hue of the sky. 

“Mine said that as well,” Charlotte replied, and Cécile nodded. “Same here.”

The girls walked to their bikes, throwing away their soda cups on the way out. They then pedaled away, going down the same bumpy wooden trail they came on.

Manon was the first to split off from the group, her friends lived further down the beach. She waved to them goodbye, before heading down the street to the Fournier cottage.

She turned the corner, and promptly gasped.

The cottage was gone.

All that remained of it was a large pile of smoking ashes. 

A few fire trucks and police cars were parked on the street in front of it, and a cluster of police officers, firefighters, and concerned neighbors stood in front of where the cottage once was.

Her eyes widening, Manon got off her bike, letting it clatter on the pavement, and ran towards the scene to look for her family.

“Maman? Papa? Henri? Gérald?”

No reply from anyone, other than a few people, including the Fourniers’ next-door neighbor, giving her a strange look.

“Excuse me,” Manon said, pushing past a few neighbors in search of her parents and brothers. “Maman? Papa? Henri? Gérald? Where are you?”

Once again, no replies. The next-door neighbor started talking to a nearby police officer, pointing at Manon as he said something to the officer.

Anxiety was starting to set into Manon. “Maman? Papa? Henri? G—“

“Excuse me, are you Manon Fournier?” The police officer that the neighbor was talking to tapped Manon’s shoulder, and she whirled around, nearly hitting the officer with her long brown hair.

“Yes.” She pointed to the smoldering remains of the cottage. “That—that was my house. Do you know where my family is?”

The officer, another nearby officer, and the neighbor all exchanged a weird look. Nobody said anything.

Manon just stood there, waiting for them to say something. Finally, one of the officers spoke up, delivering words that would haunt Manon’s nightmares for decades to come.

“I’m sorry, but we believe your family passed away in the fire.”

~~~

Everything became even more dreamlike for Manon, but this time, it was a nightmare.

She felt like she was at the dentist and she had been given a shot of Novocain, but rather than numbing just her mouth, it numbed her entire body and brain.

Everyone around offered their condolences, but they didn’t register in Manon’s brain. 

Eventually, one of the police officers led her towards a police car. She became like a doll, letting the officer move her and seat her in the car with no resistance, her face frozen in the same expression. 

The car drove away from the coast, heading into the city of Montpellier. Manon just stared out the window, watching the shadowy scenery passing by, illuminated by the sinking sun.

Some minutes later, the car reached a police station. Manon was guided to a waiting room and into an uncomfortable plastic chair, and the police officer disappeared into another room, shutting the door behind them. Behind the door, voices spoke, and phone calls were made. 

An hour, maybe two, passed. Manon was alone. She sat the way she did in the police car: like a doll, staring off into space. This time, her gaze was directed towards the linoleum floor, watching a solitary ant crawl around in search of food. 

It was just her and the ant for a long time. The clock kept ticking and ticking, filling the empty room with at least something.

The sun had long gone down when someone came to fetch Manon. Some woman she’d never seen before.

“We’re sorry, Manon, but you have no family to take you in. No volunteers are willing to take you in for tonight. You’re going to stay in a children’s home for a little while.”

Manon didn’t remember if she said anything in response or not. Not that it would make any difference. She had no control over her fate.

The same police officer who drove her to the station drove her to the children’s home. There, another woman gave her pajamas and directed her to a place to change, then to a cot in a room full of sleeping girls.

It was there, laying on the cot, the nearly-full moon shining down on her face, that the numbness wore off. 

Her family was dead.

Manon began to quietly cry, realizing she’d never see them again. She’d never again see her mother’s smiling face, hear her brothers’ laughter, or smell her father’s cologne as he hugged her.

Her crying escalated, and she turned over on her stomach and pressed her face into the pillow so that her sobs wouldn’t wake up the other girls. 

She was now alone. Completely alone in the world.


End file.
